UAE keen on attracting more Chinese investments

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) welcomes more direct investments from China, its top trade partner, said Abdullah Al Saleh, undersecretary for foreign trade at the UAE Ministry of Economy, on Monday.

Al Saleh said the UAE attracted foreign direct investment (FDI) of over 10.3 billion U.S. dollars in 2017, up from 9.6 billion dollars in 2016. But China was not among the top 10 list of the UAE's FDI source countries.

Al Saleh said the UAE would like to see more investments from China, admitting that there is lack of communication on the UAE side.

Figures released by the UAE Ministry of Economy showed that the UAE's FDI has not rebounded to the level of 10.82 billion dollars in 2014, when the oil price started a three-year slump until mid-2017.

In order to reach out to potential Chinese investors, Al Saleh said the country has upgraded training for the UAE free zones, local partners and stakeholders, and more trade delegations will be sent to China.

He stressed that the UAE is a staunch supporter of China's Belt and Road Initiative which aims to economically integrate Asia with the Middle East, Africa and Europe through building a trade and infrastructure network.

Moreover, the UAE capital Abu Dhabi plans to ease a number of laws in order to attract more foreign investment, including from China.

Al Saleh said Chinese investors have expressed interest in investing more in the UAE's petrochemical, transport and logistics, and hospitality sectors.

China remained the UAE's top trade partner for three consecutive years from 2014 to 2016, during which the bilateral trade amounted to 141.74 billion dollars.

About 300,000 Chinese nationals now live in the UAE, while over 4,000 Chinese businesses operate in the Gulf state.